The American Spectator

Christopher A. Hall br> Knoxville, Tennessee /p>

How does one say “pandering” in Spanish? Or Arabic, for that matter? Do “conservative” Americans care about the future of this nation under the presumed leadership of the GOP candidate, assuming he could win the November election? I, for one, am not convinced that many do. It speaks volumes that the GOP, a party that has, for nearly twenty years, lost its conservative way, now endorses the perfect example of such meanderings as its presidential nominee.

Signor Antle has enumerated sufficiently the inherent contradictions to be located within the body of John McCain’s talk to La Raza, but one must still wonder if his appearance before this, or any other soon-to-be formed ethnic or religious organization, will become de rigueur for all presidential candidates in the future, thereby demonstrating support of multicultural diversity of these United States? In this specific case, our senatorial Solon from Arizona spoke to a group that sees nothing wrong in abolishing national boundaries - so long as they are U.S. borders - and for the US taxpayer to subsidize LaRaza’s and other Latino organizations’ flagrant, willful advocacy of violation of enforcement of current immigration law. “We can’t let immigrants break our laws with impunity,” McCain intoned during his talk. Could have fooled me: I thought every action that he, and his like-minded mentor in the White House, has advocated over the past three years gave every indication that breaking the law was “no problema.” To be direct, albeit uncharitable, every word McCain uttered during his talk to this august group about enforcement of those laws and securing our borders will be proven to be a bold-faced lie: and that includes the “ands,” “ifs” and “buts.” Straight Talk Express, indeed!

I have, perhaps with too much force, written repeatedly on this webzine about McCain’s Janus-faced stance in dealing with illegal immigration. To his Arizona constituents, so seriously afflicted by the ravages of illegal immigration, he would “…build the ********* fence,” but to organizations such as LaRaza and other similarly minded groups, these words are never considered, forget uttered. The GOP presumptive candidate knows full well that state officials have, as a result of the damages done in Arizona, instituted a very thorough local/state crack down in dealing with illegal immigration, knowing that Washington will do nothing but window dressing enforcement in this matter. By his previous actions, viz., proposing two amnesties, McCain believes he can, “…earn the trust…” and coax enough Latinos to vote for him. What our senatorial Solon knows — or should — is that Senator Obama, “a fine man” to McCain, can, and will, outpander him, and if a recent Zogby poll is any indicator, Obama is the greatly favored choice of the folks at the LaRaza convention, despite McCain’s alcahuetria, which is Spanish for pandering. Yet, McCain, along with Don Quijote, persists in his delusional quests.

p>In the end, a fair indicator of McCain’s chances of winning in November will depend on enough “conservatives,” believing that an Obama presidency will seriously damage this country, who will take the lesser of the two evils approach. Fair enough. But in so doing, conservatives will help the GOP to continue to wander in the desert, perhaps for the Biblical forty years, for the party leadership will roll over and play dead as President McCain helps to destroy what remains of the conservative movement in the land. Call me unrealistic and/or naive, but I cannot pull the GOP lever in November. Neither should any conservative. br> — Vincent Chiarello br> Reston, Virginia /p>

I think the greatest failure of the immigration reform debate is that we have failed to see the real problems. First, we don’t to reform illegal immigration, we need to reform legal immigration. The United States continues to be the shining city on the hill, and people still want to come here. We need both skilled and unskilled workers to fill jobs. Why can’t we open our boards, in the legal sense, to greater immigration? The greatest reason for such high levels of illegal immigrants is because it’s just so complicated, confusing, and nigh impossible to enter legally. This needs reformation.

Despite my conservative tendencies, I agree with most of what McCain has been saying lately on immigration. We need to focus on enforcement first. That’s the only ‘reform’ we need on illegal immigration. But then we do need to find a way to accommodate more immigrants, allow more in every year legally. And we need to come up with humane means of handling the millions here. They are, after all, still human. They are still endowed by their Creator with certain, inalienable rights. And we must remain true to our founding principles and treat them in such a manner that their rights are respected. We still need to focus on assimilation and making them productive American citizens, but we can do this in a humane fashion. It is both logistically difficult and inhumane to attempt to deport more than thirteen million people. While we are working out how to approach this issue, we have to keep this mind.

p>If McCain remains true to the methods he now advocates, and that is a big if, then he’s on the right path. And I think he’ll deserve our support and the support of Hispanic conservatives. All the same, we will have to keep him on this path now and in the future. br> —